“He just made a decision to leave in his best interest,” Kimbrough’s father said.

“It has to do with some other stuff,” that his father did not want to divulge. “He didn’t get into trouble or nothing like that. It’s just in our best intrests. We’re from Indiana and it’s kind of hard. I can’t do everything 600 miles away and get information like I’m supposed to. He just was very unhappy.”

On Thursday, Bulldogs coach Kirby Smart released an official statement regarding the move:

“Based on a mutual decision between Tim (Kimbrough) and I, he will no longer be a part of our football program,” Smart said. “We wish him the best as he continues his education and playing career.”

“I just wanted to sit out, so the people in front of me could start until they needed me, until the team needed me,” Kimbrough said. “But since I left practice, coach, he was like, since I left practice I’ve got to be kicked off the team, or I had to transfer. So I just said I would transfer.”

However, AJC also reports, “someone with knowledge of Kimbrough’s departure maintained that Georgia coaches ‘tried to keep him.'”

As a junior in 2015, Kimbrough recorded 62 tackles (4.5 for loss) with one sack in 10 games of action.

Tyler Waddell is a member of the Saturday Down South news team. He brings over five years of professional journalism experience and is closing in on a Bachelor's in sports management. Follow him on Twitter (@Tyler_Waddell).

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Comments Section

33 COMMENTS

Sounds like Kimbrough didn’t like where he was on the depth chart or that he may not fit into the new defensive scheme. It’s tough for a kid to hear but the coaches make the decisions. Good luck. If a kid gets an attitude with the coaches because of where they fall on the depth chart, it’s time for them to go. In life, you earn your spot every day. Hopefully this kid learns that lesson.

The timing on all of this is interesting…Smith gets released from Bama yesterday, wants to transfer to UGA, UGA probably needs a scholarship for Smith to play this year and this kid all the sudden has to transfer or gets the boot, thus freeing up said scholarship?

Certainly no coach in Athens would force a kid to transfer out of the blue that’s given three years of his blood, sweat and tears for a program right before the season starts so they could use his scholarship to bring on a transfer player…no, not the almighty Georgia Bulldogs, their standards are much higher than that. They truly have the student-athletes best interests at heart, not just all about winning football games.

You’re the one on the high horse. The Bama fans here are admitting that Saban probably didn’t have Smith’s best interest in mind. But any CFB coach competing for a championship would have made the same decision to block a kid from following the old coach to a school that they could likely face in the SEC championship. It’s the UGA fans who don’t see the hypocrisy in Kirby Smart blocking the Miami transfer or kicking this kid off the team to clear a spot for Smith.

You are correct, I know nothing and there very well could be much more to the story than what is being released, I just find it interesting the timing and strangeness of all this and him being forced to leave suddenly without really any details as to why, outside of him sitting out at last nights practice because he felt he was injured…you don’t find that a bit odd at all?

And the last part of my comment above was said in jest because for the past week and a half Georgia fans have crucified Saban for the Mo stuff.

Here’s what we know. The kid walked out of practice Tuesday. He’s frustrated with the coaches and they were frustrated with him. His statements imply he thought he should be higher on the depth chart, and that he was owed that. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but if the best player get’s the top spot, then this is nothing more than him venting frustration or saying he shouldn’t have to work harder for it. But it sounds like he created his own exit. There were past issues with this kid, and I think Kirby basically said ‘if you leave, then that’s it’. If it’s true, I have zero problem with any of that.. but admittedly, there’s a lot we don’t know.

About 3-4, which one is it 3 or 4? 111 players listed as active on UGA’s current roster (112 when Tim was on it)…I’m calling BS as to having schollys available, unless you can prove to all of us otherwise and where you got your information.

UGA had 25 scholarships avail going into signing day They signed 21 players (not counting Chad Clay since he was dismissed) They have had 2 players prior to Tim transfer out. So counting Tim that would be 7 available scholarships and that is assuming I am not missing anyone else

Go to georgiadogs.com and look at the active roster. See who’s on scholarship (not HOPE), use your math skills, and see that it’s less than 85. As a fan I know who’s a walk-on and who’s not so it’s pretty easy.

I know you’ve been itching to use that tired line (the product of CMR’s policies and character…), and who blames you for using an outdated jab, since Bama has had no reason to troll us for a long time…we either weren’t a threat or fell off when we did have a team. First off: We have several scholarships open…established by Kirby when he signed a small class and said he “wasn’t gonna panic and add recruits late just to fill the class for the sake of filling scholarships.” Noting that he “just has that many more available to use in the future…”

Good Try. Some nice deductive reasoning but reaching… Research next time…and remember the selective nature of Saban’s discipline system…notice that he always talks about keeping kids to help them in life…because those are big names and players of need. All is silent in Alabama when he kicks off players of lesser status for equal or lesser offenses…

@bamatime, CMR under recruited and it bit him in the ass last year. I bet we’ve got Scholarships to spare, and if CKS wanted to create room, he could have very easily booted or grayshirted a kid at a position we have plenty of. He didn’t do that. This is much ado about nothing, really. But I said the same thing above.. you can thank Mark Richt for a moral high ground we’ve enjoyed.. not the school itself. Kirby will be managing the roster differently, and we won’t have the moral high ground any longer… of that I’m sure.

I think you should say Mark Richt’s standards were higher than that, and Georgia was the beneficiary of a moral high ground for 15 years. Those days are gone my friend. Did we need to make a roster spot? I don’t know, but I can assure you, there were probably a lot more expendable players on the team than Kimbrough. He may have lost the starting job, but he was sure to play quite a bit at a position we are pretty thin at to begin with.

outside of the fact it is not hard to see bamatime just made up the idea of kicking a player off to open a scholly when UGA has plenty, if they were going to do that they would kick someone off they don’t need as much

I am not the one that even brought that up. What I have shown is recruiting class numbers as you say you have 3-7 scholarships available. I don’t see how that is possible when you have signed 125 over the last 5 years…

@bamatime There was one year in particular, I believe it was 2012 or 2013 that Richt drastically undersigned. Part of that was strategy for future needs. The bad news? That came home to roost last year in that he had little quality depth and expertenced backups. It’s like b/c he couldn’t haul in the big class, he didn’t stock up on lower starred players. And we’ve had a lot of attrition, particularly from the 2013 class. So there was availability for Maurice, and anything else about Kimbrough is nothing more than a conspiracy theory. Where I will concede is that with Kirby on board, I’m sure things are changing on the roster management front. But it’s not as if you guys have some moral high ground over us there. I don’t have as much of an issue with Saban blocking Maurice Smith as I do with his pathetic excuses for not letting him. Leaned on the SEC rules (lame because he had the right to waive it), said it was in Smith’s own best interest to stay. But that’s exactly what I expect Saban to do, and the only thing I’ll say otherwise is that I promise you I’ll condemn it when/if Kirby does it too.. which I expect he will.

Over five years, he made up ground. But there was a two year period somewhere in there where he didn’t. So the numbers were lopsided and he had a lot of underclassmen, and not much experienced upperclassmen. It killed out quality depth. It’s why he lost his job because last year that class hit it’s senior year. Right always kept some scholarships in his back pocket, and never gray shirted or revoked scholarships.

@bama time “That’s amazing and funny. Over the last five years UGA has signed 125 players while Bama has signed 126…..Bama get accused of oversigning yet UGA is under their scholarship limits…..yeah sure.”

Math, how does it work?

Let me help you out a little bit:

UGA’s 2013 class signed 32 players. 15 of them have transferred off the team. Those scholarships become available.

Don’t forget the number of players kicked off the the team, including Chad Clay earlier this year.

Well according to 247 UGA signed 34 in 2013 but that’s not the point. UGA fans love to say Bama over signs yet I just showed you that UGA has only signed 1 less recruit in five years. Now that I pointed that out you’re quick to jump to the defense and explain how that’s possible but let a Bama fan do that and it’s all lies…..The hypocrisy within the UGA fanbases is hilarious. These transfers show it…